[Marxism] Fwd: AN ISSUE TOO HOT FOR FAHRENHEIT 9/11?

[paul bunyan <cutemdown2003@xxxxxxxxx>]

Subject: AN ISSUE TOO HOT FOR FAHRENHEIT 9/11?

Business Week
July 28, 2004

By Ciro Scotti

An Issue Too Hot for Fahrenheit?

[ EXTRACT - "...The film goes on about filial revenge and oil, but it never 
ventures onto really touchy turf -- namely the role of fiercely pro-Israel 
neocon hawks in convincing Bush to go to war. The elephantine Mr. Moore 
conveniently fails to mention that other pachyderm in the Democratic room. Why 
didn't Fahrenheit go there, Mr. Moore?...")

At a Massachusetts political rally, Michael Moore leveled some well-deserved 
zingers at the media, while ducking a key question

It's hard not to be charmed by Michael Moore, the filmmaker whose anti-Bush 
documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has been sweeping across the country like a summer 
forest fire in a drought of truth. He's fat and jolly, smart and sassy, a 
left-wing Falstaff who has become an overnight sensation in the most unlikely 
pockets of America.
His film, which attacks the war in Iraq as an invasion mounted under false 
pretenses, is said to be playing well near military bases. And as Moore told 
some 800 progressive groupies who gathered somewhat incongruously yesterday in 
the ballroom of a chain hotel in Cambridge, Mass., for a rally organized by the 
Campaign for America's Future, he's even making inroads in NASCAR land.

Moore says he was recently channel-surfing when he saw hot, young driver Dale 
Earnhardt Jr. telling Fox Sports that he took his pit crew to see Fahrenheit. 
"Then he says," quotes Moore, "'I think all of America should see this movie.' 
Whoo-hoo! I almost fell off the couch."

Actually, Moore said, he offered up a prayer for George Bush: "Oh, my God, I 
hope he's not watching this race and eating pretzels."

IN BED, NOT EMBEDDED.  Funny stuff, but Moore's barbs aren't aimed just at the 
President. Yesterday, he seemed just as interested in going after the press. 
"The unstated villain in the film is our national media," he said. "The film 
outs them as shills for the Bush Administration...and cheerleaders for the war."

As the crowd hooted its approval, Moore addressed the press: "We need you to do 
your job. You do us no service...by looking the other way" or failing to ask a 
hard question for fear of being called un-American.

He was especially harsh on NBC. He called General Electric (GE ), parent of 
NBC, a "war profiteer" that has $600 million worth of contracts in Iraq. So, he 
suggested, it's hardly surprising that GE's "news entity" didn't tell the truth 
about the war. "You haven't just been embedded," he said again to the press, 
"you've been in bed with the wrong people."

"UNCOOL TO BE APATHETIC."  But the press's failings go beyond swallowing the 
Administration line on Iraq, Moore said. He ridiculed the media mindset that 
the U.S. is a 50-50 country, almost evenly divided between Democrats and 
Republicans. He said the press just keeps looking at "likely voters," but 
September 11 has changed everything, and Nov. 2 will see a sea change because 
the 50% of America that doesn't vote is now talking politics.

"I have traveled across the country quite a bit in the last year," he said. "It 
ain't a 50-50 country.... That's the big story that the media has missed.... 
It's cool now to talk about politics. It's uncool to be apathetic -- that's why 
Jon Stewart is so popular."

Moore claims that in their hearts, the majority of Americans are liberal and 
progressive. "There is just a small minority that hate," he said talking about 
right-wing Republicans. "They are not patriots, they're hate-triots."

DOUBLE STANDARD.  As already observed, the man has a zinging wit. And mostly 
he's right about the media drinking the Administration Kool-Aid on Iraq and 
being afraid to ask the tough questions. Many in the media were shameful 
weenies on Iraq, and maybe we do have tunnel vision about the electorate.

But Moore has a double standard about being duped about weapons of mass 
destruction. He defends John Kerry's vote to invade Iraq because the Democratic 
about-to-be-nominee like so many other Americans believed in the 
Commander-in-Chief. The press doesn't get that same pathetic pass.

And despite Moore's brilliant use of humor and pathos to deliver a political 
broadside, Fahrenheit is seriously flawed. A critic as tough as Michael Moore 
could make the case that the great auteur has foisted on the country an 
argument against U.S. involvement in Iraq that avoids the central reason behind 
the invasion. Talk about being chicken-hearted and missing the big story.

The film goes on about filial revenge and oil, but it never ventures onto 
really touchy turf -- namely the role of fiercely pro-Israel neocon hawks in 
convincing Bush to go to war. The elephantine Mr. Moore conveniently fails to 
mention that other pachyderm in the Democratic room. Why didn't Fahrenheit go 
there, Mr. Moore?


com


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